Food and ritual resources in hunter-gatherer societies: Canarium nuts in southern China and beyond

Archaeobotanical studies tend to concentrate on the evidence for specialised agricultural food production, with less attention directed towards the use of plant foods within hunter-gatherer contexts. Here, the authors present evidence for the exploitation of Canarium nuts from four late hunter-gatherer sites in southern China. Canarium nuts contributed to the inhabitants' diets from as early as 9000 cal BP. They also identify new uses of Canarium, c. 4500-4400 cal BP, as ritual offerings in the context of the introduction of rice and millet farming. The results are exam ined in the context of Canarium use across the wider Asia-Pacific region. Keywords: southern China, Canarium nuts, food resources, hunter-gatherers
Introduction Archaeobotanical research has focused predominantly on evidence for farming economies, with much less attention paid to the question of how hunter-gatherers obtained and maintained plant foods. Yet some 'complex' [...]